Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXIV, Africa

170. Memorandum of Conversation¹

Washington, March 4, 1967.

SUBJECT

• Plans for President Bourguiba’s Visit to Washington in June

PARTICIPANTS

• The Secretary
• Ambassador Rachid Driss, Tunisian Embassy
• Mr. Slaheddine Abdellah, Minister, Tunisian Embassy
• Mr. Frederick Sacksteder, Tunisian Desk Officer

Ambassador Driss said he had received telegraphic instructions to accept the date of June 6 for the beginning of President Bourguiba’s visit to Washington. He had originally requested a meeting with the Secretary to review a series of questions in U.S.-Tunisian relations prior to returning to Tunis, but would only discuss one question: the character and content of President Bourguiba’s visit to Washington next June. The Ambassador said Tunis was very interested in the program we were proposing for the President’s visit and in this connection wanted to know if the visit would be a State visit or an official visit. The Secretary assured the Ambassador that the President was looking forward to seeing President Bourguiba and that he would extend to his guest every appropriate courtesy. The Ambassador asked if a joint communique announcing the visit could be issued making the character of the visit clear. The Secretary said that the Department would work with the Ambassador and the White House to draft a suitable announcement for simultaneous release in Washington and Tunis.

The Ambassador then said that President Bourguiba was most anxious to have an opportunity to speak to the Congress. The Secretary replied that he hoped the Tunisian Government would not attach too much importance to an address to the Congress. The Congressional leadership has told us that we should not consider joint sessions to hear foreign Chiefs of State a part of visits to Washington. The Ambassador insisted that President Bourguiba had important things to tell the Congress—for example, how a small poor country like Tunisia was making excellent use of American economic aid. The Ambassador hoped the Secretary would try to convince Congress to receive Bourguiba. The Secretary replied that he was not saying no, and that he would look into it but that he did not want to be encouraging because he felt he knew what the reply would be. The Secretary also reminded the Ambassador that there were other more effective ways to reach the American people, such as a television interview on a program like “Meet the Press”. Ambassador Driss said that they had contacted “Meet the Press” about the possibility of an interview but that he hoped President Bourguiba could speak to our lawmakers as well as to the people. The Ambassador referred to the fact that the Congress had recently invited President Marcos of the Philippines and President De Valera of Ireland to speak before it. The Secretary agreed but he reminded the Ambassador that the Philippines had been under U.S. rule for many years and that in inviting Ireland’s “grand old man”, the Congress was paying tribute to the millions of Americans of Irish ancestry. The Secretary assured the Ambassador that he would nevertheless look into the possibilities with the Congress and that the Department would find out if a suitable reception by the Congressional leadership could be arranged.

Ambassador Driss then referred again to the character of the visit, saying that what he meant was whether the visit was official or not. The Secretary said that he believed all of the visits scheduled for June—and there were many because numerous Chiefs of State were going to Canada for the Exposition—were being considered informal working visits. The Secretary said this permitted us to cut down a little bit on unnecessary and purely formalistic protocol in order to enable the President and his visitors to devote maximum time to substantive discussions. Ambassador Driss said that President Bourguiba attached importance to formalities. He said the rest of the world, Tunisia included, would judge the status of Tunisia in American eyes by the manner in which its Chief of State was received. The Ambassador said Bourguiba had come to the U.S. several times before, first as a leader of an independence struggle and, last, as Chief of State. He had always been warmly received, the last time with all of the honors of a state visitor. The Ambassador thinks that public opinion in North Africa and elsewhere would interpret any significant change in the manner of Bourguiba’s reception as evidence of a change in U.S.-Tunisian relations. This was why he was so insistent about the character of the visit which he thought had to be at least the official visit specified in President Johnson’s invitation. The Secretary asked Mr. Sacksteder if he recalled what exact invitation had been. Mr. Sacksteder said that the Secretary, at the request of the President, had issued an invitation on April 19, 1966 to President Bourguiba to make an official visit to the United States during the second half of 1966 for two days in Washington and several additional days in other parts of the U.S.

The meeting concluded with the Secretary reassuring the Ambassador that President Bourguiba would be satisfied with the visit to Washington and that we would inform him of the possibilities of arranging something suitable on the Hill. The Secretary then gave the Ambassador a personal letter to Foreign Minister Bourguiba Jr. and requested that the Ambassador give this to the Foreign Minister when he returned to Tunis.

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 7 TUN. Confidential. Drafted by Sacksteder and approved in S on March 13. The meeting was held in Secretary Rusk’s office.